DESCRIPTION: The SUNY AIDS International Training and Research Program proposes to expand our AITRP to provide training opportunities for laboratory scientists, epidemiologists, and other health professionals in prevention research on HIV/AIDS STDs, and TB. Building on our successful efforts in Central/Eastern Europe, we propose through this application to extend our activities to the Russian Federation coordinated with the activities of the Yale AITRP and the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI). The SUNY program represents a unique merger of an academic medical center, a School of Public Health and a large State Department of Health, a merger that will allow this program to respond to the continuing challenges of preventing new infections in the region. This program builds on a large educational and training infrastructure and provides multidisciplinary training in the core areas of laboratory science, epidemiology and behavioral science. All three international training and research programs are cooperatively administered by the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn (SUNY-HSCB), New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Wadsworth Center, and the State University of New York School of Public Health at Albany (SUNY-SPH). Collaborating institutions include the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH), the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI), PHRI, and the New York Blood Center. One to two candidates per year will be selected for MS/MPH degrees in the Department of Epidemiology wherefore focus will be on HIV/STD prevention research. Two to three post-doctoral fellows will be selected per year for training in TB control, blood safety, as well as biomedical investigations relevant to prevention. Qualified candidates who complete at least one year of training will be eligible for advanced in-country research support while being mentored by program faculty. In-country short-term training will consist of small-group workshops on an annual basis. The targeted countries for the AITRP initiative are Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Georgia.